Press release

1 August 2018

On Sunday, 2 September 2018 at 11 pm , the Humboldt Forum invites you to the matinee event Humboldt³ in the Villa Elisabeth , Invalidenstraße 3, 10115 Berlin . The biographers of Alexander von Humboldt , Daniel Kehlmann , Andrea Wulf and Rüdiger Schaper will offer three different perspectives on his worldview. The discussion will be moderated by Denis Scheck . Admission is free.

Visitors can register for the event until 28 August 2018 at events.humboldtforum.com. Journalists should acquire mandatory accreditation by contacting Michael Mathis, m.mathis@humboldtforum.com.

World traveller, researcher, scientist and adventurer – Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) is the stuff of legend. As the most renowned scientist of his age, he is regarded as the cofounder of geography and the second discoverer of South America. His concepts of nature and our place within it transformed the sciences forever. On 14 September 2019, Alexander von Humboldt would have turned 250. To mark the anniversary, over the course of the Humboldt year, numerous events hosted by a range of very different institutions will examine his works as well as his lasting impact.

The year kicks off with the Humboldt Forum matinee, in which three Alexander von Humboldt biographers meet literary critic Denis Scheck: Daniel Kehlmann, who portrayed Alexander von Humboldt in his book Measuring the World, Andrea Wulf, who underscores the ecological connections in Humboldt’s research work in her The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World, and Rüdiger Schaper, whose Alexander von Humboldt. Der Preuße und die neuen Welten (Alexander von Humboldt: The Prussian and the New Worlds) examines Humboldt’s personality and his connection to his home country. Denis Scheck, who will moderate the discussion, presents Humboldt’s unique worldview from three strikingly different perspectives. There will be a book-signing after the discussion.

Daniel Kehlmann is a freelance journalist at home in Vienna and Berlin. His works have won numerous awards. Measuring the World, one of the most successful German novels in post-war Germany, has been translated into forty languages to date. Andrea Wulf lives and works as an author in Great Britain and has received numerous awards for her books. The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World was on the Spiegel bestseller list for a year and has been published in twenty-six countries. Rüdiger Schaper is the cultural editor of Berlin Tagespiegel newspaper and is the author of several books, including the biography Alexander von Humboldt. Der Preuße und die neuen Welten, published in March this year. Denis Scheck is a German literary critic, moderator of the German television broadcaster ARD’s literary magazine programme Druckfrisch and the broadcaster SWR’s programme Lesenswert and is author of a number of non-fiction works. His work has won numerous awards.

When the Humboldt Forum opens its doors in late 2019 it will mark the establishment of a whole new cultural quarter in the very heart of Berlin. By bringing together outstanding collections containing major exhibits – among them spiritual objects and artworks from Asia, Africa and America – and coupling these with a variety of cultural activities, the Humboldt Forum is seeking to inspire new insights into the worlds of the past, present and future. The participating actors are the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) with the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kulturprojekte Berlin with Stadtmuseum Berlin, and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, with the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss taking on a leading role. The Humboldt Forum has already developed a highly visible presence throughout Berlin with its diverse programme of exhibitions, discussions, performances, workshops, films and artistic interventions.